Dense Neighborhoods Are Good for Single Family House Values

They learned that pedestrian aids, such as sidewalks and shorter street blocks, as well as a mix of retail, commercial and residential properties significantly contributed to increases in multifamily rental property values.

The researchers found that not only did the value of single-family residential properties increase with density of surrounding development, but that the quality of neighborhoods, as defined by access to other land uses, including parks, increased with density as well.

A walkable community provides residents with easy access to post offices, town parks and playgrounds, coffee shops, restaurants, barbershops and club meeting venues. The ability to walk to these important locations in one’s home neighborhood has been linked to a higher quality of life.

Social capital, a measure of an individual’s or group’s networks, personal connections, and community involvement, brings benefits such as reduced isolation, career connections, and neighborhood safety. What Rogers and her team’s work suggests is that it is these benefits — facilitated by living in a walkable community — that enhance an individual’s quality of life.

The answer remains the same – home buyers, renters, people – want to be close to stuff.

Warning: slight tangent follows …

As, if not more importantly, is the continuing segmentation of the Charlottesville-Albemarle (CharlAlbemarle) region. From 2007:

Another impact may be the further segmentation of our market. What I mean by this is that some parts of the city and county are becoming relatively ignorant of each other, as the residents don’t need to leave their respective worlds. As each neighborhood develops continues to evolve and develop and re-develop its own identity, residents may become more involved hyper-locally but less-so in the greater Charlottesville area. These existing developments are poised to take advantage of the re-emerging trends of *gasp* walking and biking to work and play.

Have a question about the Charlottesville real estate market? Don’t’ quite trust Google + Walkscore to have the most up to date data? (they don’t) Ask me a question about Charlottesville neighborhoods â€¦ I won’t try to sell you or add you to any list â€¦ I hate spam, and having people hate me because I spam them is bad business.

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About Jim Duncan

I am a Realtor/Broker/Partner with Nest Realty in Charlottesville, Virginia. The goal of this site/blog remains unchanged in the nearly 10 years since its founding – to provide clear, coherent and unbiased analysis of the Charlottesville area real estate market.

Recent Comments

Jim Duncan: Agreed. Losing human interaction is something that will ultimately harm our education...Rider1: I fear that all schools everywhere are moving toward a flipped classroom model with more...Chris Bruce: The Charlottesville area in general is still a challenging place to ride a bike but...Jim Duncan: Right … I can think of a couple constituencies that would be vehemently opposed...Stormy: On the other hand, think of what this will do to the concept of snow days. If...